Easy As Breathing
by laflorencia
Summary: I'm exactly right for you, Bella. It would have been effortless for us - comfortable, easy as breathing. I was the natural path your life would have taken...if the world was the way it was supposed to be, if there were no monsters and no magic..."


**This is my first fanfic and I'd really appreciate any input any of y'all have. If I get decent feedback/reviews, I may make this into more than a oneshot. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Because if I did, it'd be Team Jacob all the way.**

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Sprawled across him on the extra long twin bed, Bella Swan absentmindedly ran her fingers through Jacob Black's raven-black hair.

"Tell me again."

"Again, Bells?"

"Yes, Jake, again. Tell me again."

He sighed. This wasn't the first time she'd asked him to repeat the words that had solidified his claim on her love and her life. At first, it was because she needed to be assured that she'd made the right choice. After the final battle with Victoria and the run-in with the Volturi, Bella had been all primed to marry the lee- to marry Edward- Jacob could afford to be gracious now that he'd won his Bella - but after she'd seen how banged up he'd gotten defending her and the Cullens, she began to have her doubts about her love for Edward.

She later told Jacob that she had made it approximately five miles from La Push after telling him that although she loved him, she couldn't give up on her vampire before her tears obscured her vision enough that she could no longer drive her truck. She recounted how Edward met her at her truck and attempted to comfort her and how it made her pain a thousand times worse because there was that part of her - smaller, but getting louder and angrier every minute, screaming at the rest of her - that craved a different set of arms. His arms. Now, just as when she told him this the first time, he couldn't help but smile as he reveled in just how right he'd been about her love for him. Seemed to him that not even the promise of literally forever as an immortal vampire had been enough to eclipse the foundations of love, trust and respect that had permeated the relationship between Bella and Jake.

The very night that Bella had originally intended to end their friendship ended up being the night that she ended her relationship with Edward. After getting home, and skirting past Charlie with tears in her eyes - after all, the one thing Charlie couldn't bear was dealing with waterworks - she met Edward in her room and repeated the words that Jacob had told her, bitterly, as he considered the love that the two friends had for one another:

"I'm exactly right for you, Bella. It would have been effortless for us - comfortable, easy as breathing. I was the natural path your life would have taken...if the world was the way it was supposed to be, if there were no monsters and no magic..."

She recounted to Edward the thoughts that he had never picked up from her that fateful day in the woods when Jacob manipulated her into kissing him before the final battle:

"For one brief, never-ending second, an entirely different path expanded behind the lids of my tear-wet eyes. As if I were looking through the filter of Jacob's thoughts, I could see exactly what I was going to give up, exactly what this new self-knowledge would not save me from losing. I could see Charlie and Renée mixed into a strange collage with Billy and Sam and La Push. I could see years passing, and meaning something as they passed, changing me. I could see the enormous red-brown wolf that I loved, always standing as protector if I needed him. For the tiniest fragment of that second, I saw the bobbing heads of two small, black-haired children, running away from me into the familiar forest. When they disappeared, they took the rest of the vision with them."

She told Edward that she didn't want that vision to disappear, she didn't want to lose out on a future with her best friend, that she wanted forever to mean something and that with Jacob, each second counted, not because she was steadily growing older than him, which was a sore point for Bella as far as Edward was concerned, but because each finite second held a wealth of warmth and laughter and a feeling of belonging the likes of which Bella had never felt before. She gave Edward a teary, crooked smile and reminded him that she had always held a preference for warmth and sunshine over the cold darkness. Edward's ocher eyes softened at the memory of those first few days, during which he spent most of his day trying not to spill her blood all while trying to get to know this strange human whose mind was forever off-limits. True to his altruistic form, he declared that all he would ever want from her was her happiness, and if that meant spending her life with Jacob, then it was better than losing her soul to an eternity with him.

That conversation was years ago, what felt like an entire lifetime ago. With the end of their relationship, Edward retreated to Denali, Alaska for a couple of weeks and returned in time to finish out the year, with a surprise in the form of the strawberry-blonde Tanya in tow. After graduation, the Cullens relocated to New Hampshire, where Edward would matriculate yet again at Dartmouth, this time majoring in Music and Native American Studies, as he told Bella over the phone with a smile in his voice, one could never be too prudent in researching the origins and legends of one's conquerors. He and Tanya lived together in an apartment just outside of Hanover, close to the woods. Nearby resided Carlisle and Esme, Carlisle being the new head doctor at the hospital in town. Rosalie and Emmett were on a year-long honeymoon - again - while Alice and Jasper took a vacation on the tropical isle that Carlisle once bought for Esme. After the constant drama and stress of the previous year - battling James, Victoria, and the Volturi, the vampires had decided that it was high time to take a break and enjoy their immortality in the most relaxing manner possible.

Bella, due to her constant indecision over where to attend college, opted to take a year off to reevaluate what she wanted to do with her life, a decision which filled Jacob with joy because that meant that she would actually live, that her heart would continue to beat. He, ever conscious of the fact that he was two years behind her in school, rushed to complete his GED as opposed to wait another year while she was in college and he was trudging through his senior year. They enrolled together at UCLA, far enough south to see the sun on a regular basis, yet still only a day or two's worth of driving from home, a welcome compromise.

They currently were laying on his bed in his dorm - luckily enough, they had both managed to get single rooms and rarely went a day - or night - without each other. This spring, they would graduate, he with a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, her with a degree in English, and move in together, officially.

Jacob sighed again and blew his breath out noisily, blowing Bella's chocolate brown hair out as if an industrial-strength fan was suddenly turned on, causing the slim young woman sprawled across his body to chuckle.

"I know you get tired of saying it, Jake, but I never get tired of hearing it. Tell me again."

"Sure sure. I'll never get tired of telling you. I'm exactly right for you, Bella. Effortless, comfortable, easy as breathing, the natural path your life will take because the world is the way it's supposed to be, monsters and magic aside...and I love you more and more every day."

She sighed and snuggled closer, absentmindedly running her fingers through her hair, until the bracelet on her wrist caught in his long hair. He grimaced as her charm bracelet's links tugged at his hair and as he gently disentangled her from his hair, he held her hand in his large one. They both looked at their entwined hands, porcelain-white and russet-brown, her wrist still bearing the charm bracelet he'd given her so many years ago, with the carefully carven wooden wolf as the sole charm, the diamond heart having been removed and put in a keepsake box as a reminder of who was now little more than a memory of a lifetime ago.

He leaned over her to his nightstand and pulled out a small velvet box. She looked at him, confused, as he pulled the two of them upright and climbed over her, out of the bed and knelt on the floor. Jake ran one hand through his hair and took a deep breath:

"So long as I live, I'll never get tired of telling you that I love you and I'm exactly right for you, Bella. Our love is effortless, comfortable, easy as breathing, the natural path our lives will take because the world is the way it's supposed to be, monsters and magic included. So this monster has one magic question for you. Isabella Marie Swan, will you marry me?"

Bella's eyes filled with tears and she whispered, "Sure sure," as she grinned while he slid the diamond ring on her finger.

As soon as the ring was on her finger, she smacked him on the arm.

"What was that for?!"

"'So this monster has one magic question for you? Could you be any cheesier?"

"You loved it and you still said yes."

Bella chuckled.

"Technically, I said, 'sure sure'. Don't get too cocky, Mr. Black."

"Technically, you still accepted, Mrs. Black."

She smiled and murmured, "Mrs. Black...I like the sound of that."

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**So, comments/reviews/feedback?**

**Thanks for reading!**


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